Maweni Farm

Usambara Mountains

“This place is peace and tranquility on earth”

Location

The lodge is located in stunning surroundings above Soni, less than half an hour drive from Mombo on the Dar–Arusha highway. Maweni is the perfect entry point to the Usambaras and a cool stop-over for weary travellers. Here’s a map.

History

Fabulously wealthy sisal baron Abdulla Karimjee built Maweni as a mountain retreat, we believe sometime in the forties. The property is now owned by the Bumbuli District Council and managed by Maweni Farm Ltd under a lease contract. More about the history.

Rocks

The lodge is surrounded by a park-sized garden with a large pond and giant rocks. The Swahili word “maweni” literally means “on the rocks”.

Relax

Read a book. There is no TV.

Walk around aimlessly in the serene garden full of interesting trees and birds.

Take the steep path through shaded coffee and cardamom plots up to the foot of the big cliff. There are no fences.

After dinner, wind down around the fireplace. Tell stories. Go out at night, look at the stars (no light pollution) and listen to the owls, bush babies and tree hyraxes. Sleep in cool mountain air. No need for air condition.

Wake up to the sounds of birds and eat a healthy breakfast with the thieving monkeys jealously watching from the nearest tree.

Explore

The West Usambara Mountains – divided in the middle between Lushoto and Bumbuli districts – offer great hiking through a vast and varied mountain landscape with friendly villages, dark rainforests and views over the rest of Africa.

We have trained guides and organised hiking tours all around the Usambaras since year 2000.

We help you organise tours from half a day up to a week, usually starting right in our backyard, with or without professional tour guide.

See our hiking tour tips and options here.

Restaurant

Dinner in Maweni usually means a buffet with a seriously eclectic mix of dishes. You may find italian pizza, indian curries, french quiche, ethiopian shiro, greek moussaka, nigerian yollof, lebanese hummus and various swahili and sambaa dishes, all cooked from the ground up with mostly locally grown organic ingridients, and seafood fresh from the beach in Tanga. There is always a vegetable soup, homemade bread, locally produced cheese, several vegetarian dishes and fruit. The coffee is organic arabica grown and freshly roasted in our backyard, often claimed to be the best in the country. Milk and cream is from the neighbour’s cows who occasionally graze in the garden, and the eggs from hens proven to be clever and agile enough to escape the eagles patrolling the valley.

Families

Kids of all ages usually love it in Maweni, particularly those who otherwise live in cities with little green space to roam. There are trees and rocks to climb, chameleons to find, monkeys to chase. Big family groups of up to 12 pax can rent the entire main building with six bedrooms, own lounge and entrance.

Retreats

Rent the whole place for your team!

Maweni is a great place for workshops, meetings and retreats for up to 20-25 participants. There’s an airy conference room with screen, projector, reasonably fast wifi, and lots of space for socialising both in- and outdoors. Over the years we’ve hosted dozens of seminars, annual meetings, study tour groups, batik workshops, film-making courses, yoga workshops, etc.

Filmmaking

Maweni director Lars Johansson is a documentary filmmaker, sometimes working from Maweni. Watch more of our earlier productions from East Africa and Nigeria on the filmmaking page.

What our guests say

This place is peace and tranquility on earth

Leif Josefsson

The lodge is absolutely beautiful! It’s in such a stunning location with the Mountains in the background and a wide variety of wildlife that comes and goes. They provided such a welcoming atmosphere and the homemade food is amazing!

Tara Humpfrey

A good escape from the hustle and bustle in the cities, clean air and beautiful landscape! clean comfortable rooms and very good and rich meals.

Martin D

Gorgeous setting and area – wish we’d stayed longer

Jojorosie

The whole atmosphere is dense with colonial history, because the Usambara Mountains was the stronghold of the German Colonial community in former German East Africa. The very nearby Soni village is a vibrant experience. We only met very friendly and trustful local people.

Simon Plum

Very cool place.

Deogratias Mashinagwe

The tents were comfortable with hot showers much appreciated in the chilly early mornings. The management and staff were first class and did everything to ensure our stay with them was perfect even providing personal onwards travel at a very reasonable price. Of particular merit was the high standard of food especially going out of their way to cater for my good wife who is a veggie.

R Thorne

To me this place felt like paradise

Lizanne C

Our guide for the hike (nicknamed Kiki) was excellent, thoughtful and interesting and I would not hesitate to recommend him.

Brett

I was really impressed by the superb coffee, which your staff roasted in the kitchen.